Where there are U.S. connections to the dispute, Section 1782 can be a powerful discovery tool, and litigants involved in such foreign proceedings would be wise to conduct themselves with the same caution employed in U.S. proceedings.

The Supreme Court issued an opinion recently on the Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International case that declared claims that are drawn to a patent-ineligible abstract idea are not eligible under Section 101. The court has left room for software patents to validated, but patents that take an...